Effects of age on spatial information processing: relationship to senescent changes in brain noradrenergic and opioid systems

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6897729

Rapp, P R

A major focus in current research on aging is the identification of senescent changes in cognitive function in laboratory animals. This literature indicates that the processing of spatial information may be particularly impaired during senescence. The degree to which nonspecific factors (eg. sensory of motor deficits) contribute to behavioral impairments in aging, however, remains largely uninvestigated. In addition, few studies have attempted to identify senescent changes in brain structure and function which might underlie the behavioral manifestations of aging. In the behavioral experiments reported here, the authors tested young, middle-age, and senescent rates in several versions of a spatial memory task, the Morris water maze. The results of these investigations demonstrate that aged rats are significantly impaired in the Morris task compared to young or middle-age animals. In addition, these studies indicate that age-related deficits in the water maze reflect a specific dysfunction in the ability of older animals to effectively process spatial information rather than a senescent decline in sensory or motor functions. Using the subjects from the behavioral studies, additional investigations assessed whether age-dependent changes in neurochemical and neuroanatomical systems which are known to mediate spatial learning in young animals were related to the behavioral deficits exhibited by aged rats. The results of these studies demonstrate that a portion of senescent animals exhibit significant increases in lateral septal /sup 3/H-desmethylimipramine binding and decrease in /sup 3/H-naloxone binding in this same region as assessed by quantitative in vitro autoradiography.

• Research Organization: North Carolina Univ., Chapel Hill (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6897729
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

551001* -- Physiological Systems-- Tracer Techniques
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
AGE DEPENDENCE
AMINES
ANIMALS
ANTIDEPRESSANTS
AUTORADIOGRAPHY
BEHAVIOR
BODY
BRAIN
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM AGENTS
DRUGS
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
IMIPRAMINE
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
LEARNING
MAMMALS
NERVOUS SYSTEM
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
ORGANS
PHYSIOLOGY
PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS
RATS
RODENTS
TRITIUM COMPOUNDS
VERTEBRATES